Peninsula Pirates Offer 2nd Chance

There are no paychecks in this world. No bonuses, no front-page headlines, no marching bands, and no luxury accommodations.

There are the blistering heat of an early-evening pracice, the boring bus rides, and the broiling sun of the Saturday afternoon games.

Mostly, there's fun for the players who have found a second chance.

Maybe they played on one of Hampton High School's state championship teams. After high school, they took work instead of college. For them, football was over at age 19 or 20, just as they were entering prime playing years.

Maybe they played some college ball and they were good enough to attract attention from the National Football League scouts. They still believe they still can play in the NFL.

Dreams befitting Don Quixote? Jousting with windmills? Sure, there's some of that. There's some of that in every man's endeavors.

But a group of young men putting the blitz on a dream seldom accomplish what the Pirates have done.

The Pirates, in their second year of existence, have never lost a game. Last year, their 12-0 record made them champions of the Mason-Dixon Football League. Last week, they opened the 1989 season with a 40-6 thumping of the Carolina Redbirds.

Saturday, at Newport News' Todd Stadium, they'll take on the Tidewater Sharks, an off-spring of the old Norfolk Neptunes. Kickoff is 1:30 p.m.

The demise of the Neptunes, two years ago, is how it all began for the Peninsula Pirates.

A group that had played for the Neptunes approached Frank Johnson, a former assistant coach at Hampton High School, with this: They wanted to keep playing and wanted to know if there was a way to get a semi-pro football team on the Peninsula.

Johnson and Nelson Holden, Sr., kicked the idea around and concluded there was no good reason the Peninsula should not have team. They lined up financial backers and then sought entry to the Mason-Dixon.

"That's where some big hassles started," Johnson said Wednesday. "We needed $1,500 for a membership fee. Insurance and some other stuff cost us $3,500.

"We came up with the money by sacrifice. I remember the Daily Press covered our first game in early September last year. The headline was, "Rusty Pirates defeat Richmond".

"You don't know how right that headline was. We didn't get our uniforms and equipment until two days before the game. The game was the first hitting we had done."

What followed that beginning outstripped everybody's visions. An undefeated record for a team organized on a shoestring budget and playing its first season in one of the better semi-pro leagues in the country?

"As a co-founder of the team, I felt we proved what can be done if you're willing to make some sacrifices," Johnson said. "As a coach, I felt we had really accomplished something.

"We proved that, on the Peninsula, we have athletes as good as any in the country. One magazine ranked us third in the nation. Of all the semi-pro teams, we were ranked third. That made me feel good for these young men."

Unfortunately, success has not eased the financial strain. Last week's trip to Durham, N.C., put a $1,200 dent in the budget - $600 for the bus and another $600 for meals.

"At this point, we're as far into the red as we can get," Johnson said. "Nobody has ever gotten a dime.

"I'm a football coach and an educator. I don't know anything about business. I'm doing this because I really believe in the players we've got."

Players like quarterback Scott Woodlief. He played high school ball at Hampton and Kecoughtan. Then some college ball at Ferrum.

In last week's opener, he passed for three touchdowns and ran for another. Late in the game, one of the Redbirds slugged him in the mouth and busted open his lip. After the game, Johnson took him to a Durham hospital to have the lip repaired.

Woodlief was back at work Monday and back at practice Tuesday.

It's players like Woodlief who give Johnson a gnawing hope for Saturday's game against the Sharks.

"We're hoping we can showcase these young men and somebody in the community takes notice," he said. "Maybe someone would become a corporate sponsor and help us out financially."